


go figure

by shoulders



Series: art student 97line [1]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Art Major AU, Gen, Nude Modeling, mingyu is at least 4 different fic tropes bc the boy can do anything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 13:23:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13295781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shoulders/pseuds/shoulders
Summary: “You guys saw his dick before even talking to him. Truly iconic.”or: how seokmin and minghao befriended the nude model in figure anatomy class





	go figure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [were1993](https://archiveofourown.org/users/were1993/gifts).



> were1993: this was for your prompt of a genfic of how 97line became friends. if i could have done all of your prompts i would have (maybe i will someday). school aus are my favorites and if you like this i actually came up with an idea for a longer actual full college au for this. this would be the prequel if i ever get around to writing more. this is a genfic but there are some gay undertones bc who doesn't love that shit right??????
> 
> that being said this fic fest was so much fun 97line deserves more love and by this i mean All of 97line especially seokmin lmao. thanks to the mods for arranging this whole thing!!!
> 
> i haven't written any fics since like 2015 but i went over this a few times, so hopefully i've improved it since the first draft. first kpop fic! also like twice the length of any single thing i've ever written before!! hooray!
> 
> also it's probably obvious but i go to art school and ive had to take 2 figure classes with a professor i hated so that frustration most likely shows whoops. if not that then at least the fact that im an art student

“So, how did you guys meet him anyway?”

Chan asked Minghao as the group sat squished in a corner of the common room. Soonyoung, Seokmin, and Hansol shared one of the well-worn green couches that were just itchy enough that no one could sleep comfortably on them. Minghao sat on the floor leaning against Seokmin and Hansol and looking up at Chan perched on the wide coffee table speckled in ring-shaped stains from years of cups and a lack of coasters.

Of course, he was referring to Mingyu, the newest addition to his college friend group. Although he was still a high school senior, Chan visited the nearby campus to visit some of his older friends, Seungkwan and Hansol. Over the past few months of visits, he had gotten to know their whole circle, although some better than others. He’d heard Mingyu mentioned a few times, but that was the only name he couldn’t attach a face or a personality to.

“That’s a story for the ages, honestly.” Soonyoung replied with a smile, legs draped across Seokmin and Hansol’s laps. “You guys saw his dick before even talking to him. Truly iconic.”

Minghao reached behind him to grab at one of Soonyoung’s ankles while Seokmin bounced his leg up to try and shake Soonyoung’s off of his lap. Chan’s eyebrows disappeared beneath his bangs as Hansol grinned.

“I promise you it’s less weird than it sounds.” Minghao reassured Chan while Soonyoung tried to free his leg from Minghao’s grasp.

“It’s a little weird, at least compared to how people normally meet.” Seokmin added. “But still, not totally unheard of for art majors, I guess.”  
     
   ——————————

A few months before, Seokmin and Minghao were in one of the drawing studio rooms at their school for yet another 6 hour figure drawing class. All of the drawing rooms with model equipment felt clammy at all times; nude models needed space heaters so they didn’t freeze, and students needed the A/C on so they didn’t melt. The resulting temperature contrast made everyone feel even more like a corpse. The layers of charcoal, paint, and clay dust that covered every possible surface added to the overall ambience of the room and the enthusiasm of the students. But as fine art majors, the two of them still needed more drawing classes for whatever reason. Their best guess was that god hates art students, but especially sophomores.

As Minghao wrestled his drawing board, newsprint and charcoal out of his portfolio case, Seokmin hefted a tackle box of sculpting tools onto a cart so covered in paint it was hard to tell what color it originally was.

Their professor got up from the tiny desk in the corner of the space and announced that they were going to be working with a brand new model today, and to remember to be polite.

Minghao had finished setting up and was making a finger gun gesture to his head at Seokmin, who was slicing off a slab of clay on the other side of the room but still responded with a long-suffering lidded eye roll. There was a soft click of the door being shut, and everyone turned to see a very tall man in only a bathrobe closing the door behind him and dropping a bag of clothes against the wall. Turning towards the stand in the center of the circle of easels and carts, their model for the day jumped and flushed a bit after noticing all the eyes trained on him before awkwardly padding his way to the wooden stand covered in blankets and towels.

Their professor walked to the center with a space heater and lamp in tow.  
     
“Alright everybody, this is Mingyu. He’ll be modeling for us today. We’ll start off with a few quick gestures to warm everyone up, and then we’ll move into the longer pose. After the gestures, we’ll take a break every 15 minutes, if that’s okay with you,” he addressed to Mingyu. “Just let me know if you need to rest any sooner than that, it’s no problem.”  
     
“Ah, thanks.” Mingyu said in a quiet voice and a nod. He climbed up onto the model stand and removed his robe, dropping it on some of the blankets by his feet. A wave of palpable tension swept across the ring of art students as they took in the person they would have to stare at for the rest of the day. Having gotten used to working with tired old men that fell asleep while modeling, and saggy middle aged ladies that clearly just wanted to be treated as works of art, this was a shock to everyone’s systems.

He was gorgeous, to put it lightly. He was tall and well-proportioned, lean biceps and quads bulged as he found a comfortable pose for the first few warm-up drawings. No real visible ab definition, but the swoop of his obliques into his rectus abdominus muscle was captivating. Not even mentioning his ass, even though it might as well have been sculpted by Eros himself. Everyone in the room was also trying hard not to look at his dick, making everything even more uncomfortable than it needed to be.

Seokmin and Minghao tore their gaze away from the tanned vision at the center of the shitty drawing room to look at each other, eyebrows raised. Their professor had already started a timer for the first 5-minute gesture, but it took the small class a few seconds to shake themselves back to reality before picking up their tools. Minghao and Seokmin shared another pointed look that just said ‘ _hooooooo_ ' before digging into their respective clay and charcoal. Any weirdness about how handsome this model was dissipated as soon as everyone got to working, as the whole class was more focused on just doing him justice.

If everyone didn’t already know that Mingyu was a new model, his choice of poses gave him away immediately. He tried to give everyone the most dynamic and interesting poses he could, not realizing how hard it is to actually hold still for 5 solid minutes. He started to waver and shake trying to hold one arm behind his neck, the other across his waist, with one leg bent forward. Everyone did their best to quickly get his gesture down to give him some freedom to shift his weight as much as he could. When the timer was up, the poor guy looked like he was going to fall over. The next few poses were shorter, 2 minutes each, and by then Mingyu learned to just stick with whatever pose was easy to hold.

After about 15 more minutes of quick poses, the professor called a break, and students began stretching and milling around talking to their friends or going to check their phones once Mingyu had his robe back on. Minghao picked his way through an obstacle course of bags and easels to check out Seokmin’s sculpture.

“Looks like a cool rock formation,” Minghao said after a few seconds’ observation.  
     
“Thanks,” replied Seokmin with a small laugh. “There’s no point trying to get anything but lines of action down for the gestures. It’d take me like 5 minutes to even get a human shape done.”

“I get you. I was wondering if you’d given up on following the gestures and just started sculpting dicks again like usual.”

Seokmin shook his head. “I don’t think I could even if I wanted to. An archetypically perfect dick is too close to home right now.”

“Hah, literally,” Minghao agreed, quieter than he was speaking before.

The two of them looked around the room at their classmates’ work: newsprint with  
humanoid scribbles in a grid, other small piles of clay in flowing, organic shapes, thick watercolor paper with blocks of acrylic color to separate ribcages from pelvises and limbs from each other. As long as everyone was working, it was easy to detach themselves from their surroundings, but now that they were on a break, most of the class caught themselves stealing glances toward Mingyu. Their model was sitting against the wall on his phone, legs bent but his robe still covering everything. Minghao and Seokmin weren’t sure if they should be relieved or not.

Their professor called everyone back over to inform them that the next pose would be what they’d be working with for the rest of the class. Once charcoal hit paper and hands began molding clay, Mingyu transformed into just another naked body in the drawing studio.

The rest of the class continued as it did before with breaks every 15 minutes. At the end of the 3 hour class, everyone walked around the room to look at what their classmates had done. Minghao had a full-body rendering of Mingyu with smaller detail studies on pages of his sketchbook that he propped up on his stool. There was only so much detail you could do with charcoal, and Minghao already worked loose and sketchy to begin with, so sketchbook studies were all he could really do for the last 30 minutes. Seokmin’s sculpture had all the right proportions, curves, and angles, but could stand to be smoothed out a little more. Neither of them had the most stunning pieces out of the rest of their class, but what they had looked good.  
   

 

As the class went off to the side to hear the next week’s homework assignment, Mingyu took the opportunity to look at everyone’s hard work after pulling his jeans and hoodie back on.

He hadn’t planned on doing this at first, he was hesitant about modeling to begin with, but he could use the extra money. Some of his fellow art majors had told him he would make a great model with his physique, and one had mentioned this professor’s search for a new one. Mingyu wasn’t really confident in his body, but he’d heard enough complaints about having big-bearded models on days focusing on head and neck muscles, old men with beer guts on days focusing on abdominal muscles, and so on, that his insecurity wasn’t as bad. Go figure, it was all thanks to the less-than-ideal models that he was able to finally contact the Fine Art department.

As he walked around the room, he was fascinated to see how everyone else saw his body. Not many students had tried to draw his face, seeing as this wasn’t specifically a course in portraiture, and the results were somewhat uncanny. He couldn’t really recognize most of the drawings and handful of sculptures as himself since they were just faceless bodies. The proportions looked good, he thought, though he was just a graphic design major and anatomy wasn’t something he had to think about often. Without faces, there wasn’t much life to these pieces even as interesting as they looked

Of the few sculptures in the crowd, one in particular caught his eye. It also lacked a face, but the lines of the body gave it a sense of personality. Mingyu had chosen a reclining pose for the long session, but instead of just making a simple seated figure, the clay body flowed from the angle of the head down through the arms, back towards the torso, and all the way down to the toes. There weren’t any spots that Mingyu’s eyes got hung up in, and everything received the same level of attention.

Continuing his circuit around the room, Mingyu passed a cluster of easels shoved towards each other displaying large drawing pads with drawings of his own body in varying levels of detail and stylization. In this row of drawings was one with a similar fluid quality to the sculpture he had just seen. The strokes were visibly looser without being too choppy or messy and very long and gestural, like the artist had moved their entire arm with each pass instead of just their wrist. There was a clear line of movement without a literal line going through the body.

In front of this easel were ripped-out sketchbook pages with detail studies of Mingyu’s hands, knees, torso, and one of his face. This portrait was also done loosely, but even with minimalist strokes, this was the first attempt at his face he recognized as himself. Both this and the sculpture of him had such similar vibes it almost felt like they were done by the same person.

Mingyu could hear the professor finish up his homework overview and the class starting to head back to pack up their things. He went back to his bag of clothes to pack up, but planned to see which two students did the sculpture and drawings that caught his eye and tell them how much he liked them. At this point he had decided that specifically asking for them was kind of a conceited move, so he decided against that.

He watched the class disperse and saw two guys headed towards the drawing he admired. They were both about the same height, but one was thin and lanky, and had sharp eyes with soft features while the other was a bit softer with very sharp facial features. The latter of the two was talking more than the other and flashed a blindingly bright smile as he laughed. Mingyu found himself involuntarily smiling as a result. The lankier boy grabbed the drawing pad and sketchbook and put them into an oversized portfolio case before the pair walked over to the sculpture he admired. The two seemed close, and the styles they worked in reflected this, so that was cool. Mingyu could compliment both of them in one shot this way, too.

Minghao and Seokmin were wrapping up extra clay and wiping off tools for Seokmin to clean later when Mingyu walked over.

“Hey, I just wanted to say both of your pieces were really nice,” Mingyu said with a smile. “Not to sound like that guy, but you both made me look good, so thanks especially.”

“Oh, no, thank you,” Seokmin replied a little too eagerly, realizing how he sounded, and floundering for a second before laughing with an apology in his eyes.

“Thanks, it really wasn’t hard to make you look good.” Minghao’s response could have been more casual if he wasn’t purposefully avoiding looking at Mingyu as he said it.

At this point Mingyu noticed he was still only wearing a bathrobe. He pulled the chest part tighter around him in mock embarrassment to hopefully cover his actual embarrassment, successfully easing some of the awkwardness between the three of them when the other two seemed to relax.

“I should probably go get dressed, I just wanted to compliment both of your work. It really looks like you guys are on the same wavelength, you both really know how to get great movement in your pieces,” Mingyu told Minghao and Seokmin while shifting his bag on his shoulder. “Not that I’d know a lot about anatomy, being a graphic designer, but I think I can recognize that much.”  
     
“Oh! Are you a student here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around.” Seokmin perked up a bit at the chance to keep their conversation going.

“Yeah, I’m a sophomore. I’m usually working though, so I don’t go out much.”

“None of us go out much because we’re all sophomore art students, then.” Minghao chimed in. “Where do you work?”

The three of them relaxed considerably since they started talking, and all of them realized, individually, how glad they were that there were still reasons to keep talking.

“I work at the cafe at the student lounge. Basically just making coffee and cleaning all day, but sometimes I can play with latte art if it’s not too busy.”

Seokmin got a puzzled look on his face for a whole 5 seconds before answering.

“I was gonna ask why I’ve never seen you before, but I’m usually semi-conscious every time I go through the lounge. Sorry if we’ve spoken before and I don’t remember.”

“It’s fine, I’m usually not the one at the register anyway. I’m actually about to head in for my shift, if you guys aren’t busy, do you wanna walk with me? I’d love to see more of your work.” Mingyu said with an obscenely genuine smile, slight snaggle teeth out in the open and everything.

    It was a good thing Seokmin and Minghao were finished with their classes for the day, because it would have been so hard to refuse this face.

“I think we could spare some time for that. I’d love to see some latte art too, if it’s not too much trouble.” Minghao said, returning a warm smile as best as he could.

“Yeah, we could hang around and get started on the homework for next week or something.”

“Or something,” Minghao joked, him and Seokmin exchanging a look that said they definitely wouldn’t be touching their figure homework anytime soon.

“Oh, I know how that goes, you won’t even think about this class until the night before next week’s. At least that’s how I handle mine.” Mingyu adjusted his bag on his shoulder and started to turn towards the door. “I should really go put some clothes back on, I’ll meet you guys out in the hallway?”

“Sure, I’ll finish cleaning up my stuff.” Seokmin replied with a nod.

As Mingyu walked out of the room to change clothes in the bathroom across the hall, Seokmin and Minghao raised their eyebrows at each other about their figure model. Not with nearly the same casual thirst as before, but just a vibe of being impressed.

“He’s really easy to talk to.”

“I didn’t know he was an art major.”

“What kind of design do you think he does? I can see him with some of that organic minimalist logo type stuff. Wonder what his latte art is like.”

“Guess we’ll have to work on stuff in the lounge more often?”

“Sounds good to me.”

\-----------------------

“Is that really it? You guys converted all that thirst directly into friendship?” Chan asked somewhat incredulously.

“Friendship thirst is a thing. Like you really, really want to be friends with someone, or you think your friends are hot, or both, I guess.” Hansol replied.

“Uh-huh, which is it with Mingyu?” Chan turned to look at Seokmin and Minghao.

At this moment, the door to the common room opened as Mingyu pushed it with his hip. He had a coffee carrier in each hand, 4 cups in one, 2 in the other. Minghao had texted him earlier to tell him where they were and which of their friends were with them, and Mingyu decided to bring everyone drinks. It also wouldn’t hurt to make a good impression on Chan, who he hadn’t gotten a chance to meet yet.

“Hey, I brought stuff.”

“I knew we kept you around for a reason.” Soonyoung said as he swung his legs to the floor to help Mingyu carry everything over.

“Chan, right? I’m Mingyu. I just got you a chai latte, if that’s okay. Wasn’t sure if you were a coffee-drinker or not.”

“Oh! Thanks so much! I’ll drink whatever, so this is great.” Chan said, slightly taken aback by his thoughtfulness. “I’ve heard a lot about you, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Uh, only good things, I hope.” Mingyu eased himself onto the floor next to the coffee table Chan sat on, near Minghao and the couch full of his friends.

“I’d call them good things, but that’s just me. Ooooh! I got a hamster!” Soonyoung observed excitedly as he took the lid off of his cup and looked at his personalized latte art.

“If I ever forget to put your name on the cup, yours always has a hamster.”

Soonyoung was taking a picture of his cup as everyone else took their lids off and appreciated their personalized latte art, courtesy of Mingyu. Hansol’s had a stylized rocket ship, Seokmin had a puppy, Minghao had a frog, and Chan had an otter.

“These are really cute, it looks like you really are as talented as I’ve heard,” Chan told Mingyu before taking a sip. His eyes slid shut and he sighed at the taste of his chai latte.

Mingyu looked away as a hint of a blush appeared on his cheeks. “I’m really not, that can’t be what you’ve heard.”

Minghao and Seokmin sipping their lattes and smiling to themselves at how well Chan seemed to be getting along with Mingyu. If he was already teasing him, that was a good sign.

“So, do you still model for the figure classes?” Chan asked innocently.

Mingyu scrunched his eyes and brought a hand to his face before replying. “That’s what you’ve heard then, okay. Good to know that’s your first impression of me.”

“That was our first impression of you, and things turned out okay,” Seokmin chimed in, trying to be reassuring but with laughter in his eyes.  
     
“True. And no, not really. I don’t mind working at the lounge as much as I did back then. I always have company when it’s my shift now.”

“Would you model for another figure class though?”

“Maybe? Hopefully one with no one I know in it.”  
     
“Like a freshman class next semester?”  
     
“That’s kind of specific.”

“I wanna see if they’re lying about how hot you are, but I wouldn’t just ask you to show me either.” Chan stated simply, continuing to sip his latte like he didn’t drop a bomb like that.

Mingyu stared wide-eyed at Chan in disbelief before laughing and turning to his friends at the couch. “Thanks for stretching the truth for me, I knew I could count on you guys.”

“We really didn’t lie.”

“Like I said, it’s not hard to make you look good.”

“Mmmmm, delicious.” Soonyoung interrupted, looking across at his friends, grinning behind his cup. “Mingyu really knows how to make stuff the perfect amount of sweet, doesn’t he?”

“Chan’s here, is now really the time for you to go all gay?” Hansol repositioned himself on the couch to get more comfortable.

“Chan’s a big boy now.”

“Is Soonyoung ever not like this?”  
     
“No, I’m not,” Soonyoung said after a few seconds of pretending to think. “Mingyu, tell us more about when you’d model again. I need to fill an art credit before I can graduate.”

Mingyu looked slightly overwhelmed with the barrage of compliments as his friends chuckled around him. Minghao gave him a lazy smile and waggled his eyebrows, and Seokmin was laughing with another dazzling smile showing.  
     
Seokmin and Minghao somehow always manage to make Mingyu feel comfortable, so even though Mingyu wouldn’t want to get naked for a class with people he knows, he could probably be chill about it if they were behind some of the easels.


End file.
